Rosslyn Park 38 Titans 19

Rotherham Titans put in a sterling performance before eventually going down 38-19 to a very good Rosslyn Park outfit at The Rock on the opening day of the season.

Park’s star-studded side boasted double figures of former Premiership players and could even afford to have a former England international sat on the bench, in prop forward Paul Doran-Jones.

So whilst the challenge was always going to be a tough one for the Titans, they can hold their heads high as they made the hosts graft hard for the victory, whilst playing some accomplished rugby themselves.

In an entertaining first half each side crossed the whitewash twice, with the hosts racing out of the blocks to dot down first on 6 minutes through number 8 Hugo Ellis.

However, Rotherham responded quickly and levelled matters four minutes later when Connor Dever fed Dan Leake who had drifted infield off his wing to break through, before finding the impressive Tom Bacon who showed good pace to run in and score next to the sticks.

Titans would have been disappointed to have worked such a fine try only to fall behind again just 2 minutes later when centre Joe Munroe eased through.

Undeterred though Rotherham continued to look bright in their work and a slick backs move just after the half hour mark resulted in Dan Leake racing down the left flank before cutting back inside to score near the posts for another impressive dot down.

Although fully deserving of being level at the break, a poor exit just after the restart from Rotherham saw them once again fall behind when full back Henry Robinson grabbed the host’s third try.

Further tries followed for Park through former Titans fly half Greg Lound and prop forward Stewart Maguire to seal the game. However, Titans kept battling and gained a late reward when centre Jamie Cooke barged his way over to seal an impressive personal performance.

Speaking afterwards, Titans Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson, was not too downhearted as he explained, “It’s strange to have just lost a game 38-19 and to be stood here thinking we’ve got massive positives out of it. I think today’s performance proved we can front-up to the top sides in the division and we have physicality in our squad.

“Our cause wasn’t helped in the second half with the injuries we picked up and we let ourselves down early in that period with our exit play.

“It was only a couple of poor exits in the second half that cost us dearly and overall we probably gave them three scores and we need to erase those kind of errors from our game. Moving forwards, if we can put that right we will get very different results.

“I’m quite encouraged; we made no secret of the fact that this is the last fixture in the league that we would have chosen as our first game and with that in mind I am looking forward to the rest of the season.

“We had lots of boys making their debuts and it will take a little bit of time for them to bed in and some players today got their first taste of National One rugby and on the back of that I think we can take lots of positives.

“There were some quality individual performances, but I thought Tom Bacon showed what a good player he is. He oozed class every time he got the ball and in everything he did. “

Referee: Karl Dickson

Attendance: 495

Yellow Card: Wilson (Titans)

Titans: Bacon (T), Leake (T), Cooke (T), Hollingsworth (2C)

Rosslyn Park: Ellis (T), Munro (T), Robinson (T), Maguire (T), Lound (T, 5C, P)

Titans: 15 Tom Bacon, 14 Ben Robbins, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Tom Bullough (Hollingsworth 58), 11 Dan Leake (Poole 68), 10 Sam Hollingsworth (Bunting 48), 9 Connor Dever, 1 Toby Williams (Whitfield 58), 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Will Dennis (R Ward 64), 4 Elliott Ward, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Lewis Wilson, 7 Zak Poole (Capt.) (Maka 64) (Leake 77), 8 Anthony Maka (Laxton 58).

Replacements: 16 Agustin Defelitto, 17 Harry Whitfield, 18 Reece Ward, 19 Keifer Laxton, 20 Morgan Bunting.

Rosslyn Park: 15 Henry Robinson, 14 Nicholas Scott, 13 Henry Cheeseman (Edwards 58), 12 Joe Munro, 11 Craig Holland, 10 Greg Lound, 9 Dave Lewis (Gash 62), 1 Kyle Traynor (Maguire 62), 2 Karl Gibson (Ellis 64), 3 Stewart Maguire (Doran-Jones 40), 4 Sam Twomey, 5 Henry Spencer, 6 James Freeman (Laventure 64), 7 Arthur Ellis (Barnard 51) (Freeman 66), 8 Hugo Ellis.

Replacements: 16 Jack Barnard, 17 Paul Doran-Jones, 18 Dan Laventure, 19 Jack Gash, 20 Neville Edwards.

Wharfedale 22 Titans 19

Rotherham ended their pre-season campaign with a disappointing 22-19 defeat to Wharfedale at the picturesque, but at times wet and windy setting of The Avenue.

The loss is a set-back for the South Yorkshire side following their opening warm-up game seven days earlier which saw them convincingly beat Preston Grasshoppers. Titans will need to regroup quickly in the week ahead as they prepare to open their National 1 campaign with a visit to Rosslyn Park next Saturday.

However, few in the ground would have predicted the final outcome after 28 minutes of an entertaining contest; as during that opening spell Rotherham raced into a 19-0 lead following three tries from Dan Leake, Harry Dunne and Sam Hollingsworth.

Maybe that was the problem for the Clifton Lane side, maybe up to that point it had become all too easy as their hard work, both in attack and defence had been so very impressive.

However, as Rotherham found out 12 months ago, Wharfedale do not roll over at home and if you are going to beat them at The Avenue you have to put your game together for more than half an hour.

So full credit to the home side for continuing to graft hard and although they enjoyed some favourable decisions at key moments, their endeavours saw them cross the whitewash twice before the break to draw to within 5 points.

The second half saw Titans start brightly and they enjoyed long periods inside the hosts 22. Unfortunately for them however they were unable to breach the whitewash; tenacious defending from the Green Machine, combined with plenty of ‘old school’ slowing the ball down paid tremendous dividends.

On the hour mark ‘Dale drew level when they scored their third try of the match to set-up a tense final 20. Rotherham did have their moments in the latter stages, but on 80 minutes the hosts were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which they eagerly converted to wrap-up a game Titans couldn’t quite believe they’d lost.

Commenting post-game Titans’ Director of Rugby, Martin Jenkinson, explained, “I think Wharfedale are a good outfit who are very well drilled by Jon Skurr and Jon Feeley and on their own patch they are always very difficult to beat. We’re not trying to make excuses, but we have lots of new boys and lots of work-ons, but the good thing is you can see where we were breasking down and those things can be fixed.

“Obviously time is short before Rosslyn Park next Saturday and we know that’s going to be a massively difficult trip and we will need to regroup quickly.

“The thing which pleased us was the individual stuff. We’ve got some very good players with some very good physicality, but we need to bring that together into a cohesive unit and we need to play sensible rugby in the right areas of the park.

“If you look at the two Wharfedale scores in the first half, they both came about when we didn’t exit when we had the opportunity to do so. We must give all opposition the respect they deserve and play solid rugby at all times.

“There will always be work-ons and time is short in the environment we’ve got, but I’ve got every confidence in the squad we’ve got. I don’t believe that one result changes all the thought processes we’ve had through the summer; I believe we are knowledgeable about the game and I believe this squad will perform and be competitive all the way through the season.”

Old Elthamians 31 Titans 12

Rotherham Titans may have been beaten on the final day of the season 31-12 by second placed side Old Elthamians, but they can hold their heads high after a sterling effort against a very good side.

Titans defeat at College Meadow combined with Plymouth Albion’s victory at Chinnor sees the South Yorkshire side finish sixth in the division and having started the campaign with just 2 players from last term, the achievement can be considered a creditable one.

The final game itself won’t go down as a classic and the difficult windy conditions didn’t help either team. Indeed, the half time score which saw the home side go in with a 5-0 lead, after prop Kieron Scutt barged over, was probably a fair reflection of the excitement levels produced.

The second half was a more entertaining encounter which saw the home side extend their advantage on 47 minutes when winger Dom Lespierre darted over for an unconverted try.

Titans however rallied and narrowed the deficit to 3 points before the hour mark when fly half Callum Irvine danced his way over to dot down under the posts. Alex Dolly’s conversion made it 10-7 and game on.

Following their success Rotherham went on to enjoy a good period of territory and possession, but to be fair to Elthamians they resolutely kept out the visitors with some tenacious defending.

The game was eventually sewed up for the home side when inside the final 12 minutes they ran in 3 unanswered tries through scrum half Ollie Claxton, full back Ben Howard and a second for winger Dom Lespierre; all of which were expertly converted by Tom White.

Rotherham did have the final say of the afternoon when skipper Seb Nagle-Taylor scored a try in the corner with 2 minutes remaining to end his exceptional season on a personal high.

Commenting post-match Titans Joe Barker revealed, “Old Elthamians is a tough place to come at the best of times, but with all the injuries we’ve got at the moment and with no fit second rows at the club, it just makes a tough place like this even more difficult.

“We had a tight head prop in the second row and a hooker in the back row and we didn’t have another fit player at the club outside our match day 20.

“So with all that in mind I have to give credit to the lads for the huge effort they put in today. Their mental attitude was spot on and overall I thought they did very well in the circumstances.

“A lot of things could have gone our way in the game and on another day they may have and potentially we could have been looking at a different result. But I am proud of every one of the lads and I think they’ve done the club proud.

“As a group of men I don’t think they’ll go through again what they’ve been through this year and I’ve thanked them for what they’ve done for Rotherham Rugby Club.

“There’s been a few clubs over the years that have been relegated into this division and not been seen again, but these lads have definitely kept Rotherham on the rugby map and that’s a big achievement.

“I’d also like to express our thanks and appreciation to our supporters who have all year been outstanding. They are very welcoming to our opposition at Clifton Lane and I’m sure every club has enjoyed our supporters at their ground; the atmosphere they create is tremendous and I’m sure bar takings receive a huge boost when they visit.”

Referee: Veryan Boscawen

Attendance: 327

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Irvine (T), Nagle-Taylor (T), Dolly (1C)

Old Elthamians: Lespierre (2T), Scutt (T), Claxton (T), Howard (T), White (3C)

Titans: 15 Sam Allan, 14 Dan Leake (Roberts 61), 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne (Abrahams 40), 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Alex Dolly (Dever 65), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 40), 4 Antony Dickinson, 5 Luis Ball, 6 Ali Thomson, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Will Dennis, 17 Ellis Abrahams, 18 Connor Dever, 19 Henry Roberts, 20 Joe Barker.

Old Elthamians: 15 Ben Howard, 14 Dom Lespierre, 13 James Golledge, 12 Kieran Moffat, 11 Charlie Dockery (Hotston 63), 10 Tom White, 9 Ollie Claxton (Neden 71), 1 Alex Rogers, 2 Nathan Morris (Rudland-Thomas 53), 3 Kieron Scutt (Brown 51), 4 Fred Hosking, 5 Charlie Self, 6 Harry Ledger (Messum 49), 7 Hamish Barton (Capt.), 8 Ben King.

Replacements: 16 Lewis Brown, 17 Jay Rudland-Thomas, 18 George Messum, 19 Ally Neden, 20 Bryan Hotston.

Blackheath 28 Titans 7

Rotherham disappointed in their penultimate game of the season as they crashed to a 28-7 defeat to an accomplished Blackheath side at Well Hall.

Rotherham did have their moments in the game but when they arrived either the hosts skilfully kept them out or they shot themselves in the foot through poor handling and decision making.

Titans could have nosed ahead in the second minute, however a rare off-target effort from Alex Dolly in the blustery conditions gave the hosts an early let off.

From there on Blackheath enjoyed the majority of what followed in the first half as they scored three tries through fly half Mark Cooke, full back Leo Fielding and flanker Stephen Leonard, all of which were converted by Leo Fielding.

Coming out for the second period trailing 21-0, Rotherham had more urgency about their work and as a result enjoyed long periods of territory and possession. However, a tremendously resilient defensive effort from the hosts ensured Titans could not breach their line.

As full time approached a rare foray from the hosts into the Titans 22 saw replacement back Ben Ransom cross the whitewash for Blackheath’s bonus point try. Again Fielding added the extras.

Deep into injury time Titans collected a consolation try when winger Henry Roberts darted through to score under the post for Connor Dever to convert.

Commenting post-match a disappointed Joe Barker said, “I think we saw the inconsistency of youth and inexperience in our performance today. Last week we were right up there as we achieved one of our best performances of the season, but this week we came close to putting in our worst and for me that’s all in the head.

“It’s nothing to do with tactical or technical ability, it’s about getting it right mentally on a week in week out basis and that will come as this group matures and become more experienced.

“Although we could have scored more tries, there’s no doubt the better team on the day won the game. Blackheath play a similar style to us in attack, but they just kept the ball far better than we did.

“We gave away a lot of penalties and mentally we weren’t alert enough at the breakdown and we didn’t react to the way the referee was running the game. You have to adapt to the referee because he isn’t going to change his approach.

“Hopefully going forward the boys will have learnt a lot of valuable lessons which they’ll take into next season because week in and week out they have to turn up, because you can’t just expect to stroll up and win games in this division.

“However, with one game to play I think we can all be pleased with what this set of lads have achieved this year and hopefully they can improve further for next year.”

Referee: Richard Haughton

Attendance: 673

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Roberts (T), Dever (1C)

Blackheath: Cooke (T), Leonard (T), Ransom (T), Fielding (T, 4C)

Titans: 15 Sam Allan, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Ellis Abrahams (Barker 71), 12 Harry Dunne (Dever 43), 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine (Roberts 41), 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Will Dennis (Stout 59), 4 Antony Dickinson (Preston-Routledge 29) (Dickinson 59), 5 Luis Ball, 6 Ali Thomson, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Rikki Stout, 17 Dan Preston-Routledge, 18 Joe Barker, 19 Connor Dever, 20 Henry Roberts.

Blackheath: 15 Leo Fielding (Ransom 58), 14 Jake Lloyd, 13 Alex Pickersgill, 12 Markus Burcham (Capt.), 11 Craig Dowsett, 10 Mark Cooke, 9 Jack Daly (Liebenberg 58), 1 Tom Williams (Young 71), 2 Harry Fry (Priestley 71), 3 Danny Herriott, 4 Josh Peters, 5 Andrew Daish, 6 Freddie Owen (Fielding 71), 7 Stephen Leonard, 8 Anders Nilsson (Bate 43).

Replacements: 16 Will Priestley, 17 Billy Young, 18 Harry Bate, 19 Stefan Liebenberg, 20 Ben Ransom.

Titans 41 Bishop’s Stortford 35

Rotherham Titans rounded off their season at home with a thrilling 41-35 victory over a very competitive and free-flowing Bishop’s Stortford side.

Each side scored five tries each and the result ensures Titans cannot finish outside the top 6 in their first season back in National 1, which, when all things considered has to be viewed as an outstanding achievement.

In a first half where the visitors undoubtedly had the better of things it took them just 9 minutes to get the scoreboard moving. From a line out close to the Titans line, the ball was fed back inside to winger Chris Smith who darted through a gap to score. Tom Banks added the extras.

Pre-match there was a suggestion the game was going to be a high-scoring affair and Titans played their part in supporting that viewpoint. On 19 minutes Callum Irvine put in a superb clearance kick which winger Dan Leake collected spectacularly on the Bishop’s 10 metre line before he outpaced the defence to score in the corner. Dolly’s impressive conversion from the touchline levelled the game at 7 apiece.

With a reputation for scoring tries and playing an exciting brand of rugby, Stortford confirmed their reputation was a deserved one when 2 further tries were added mid-way through the half from centre Reuben Bird-Tulloch and scrum half Tom Banks, with the latter converting both to stretch the visitors lead to 21-7.

It was important Rotherham scored next if they were to keep within touching distance and this they did just before half time. Following a period of forward pressure which saw them nose towards the line, flanker Zak Poole collected to crash over near the posts. Dolly added the extras to send his side in at the break trailing 21-14.

Over the half time oranges wise words must have been spoken as within 4 minutes of the restart Titans scored two converted tries!

The first one came after 18 seconds when Dan Leake collected the high ball and took play up to the Bishop’s line, before Dolly dug the ball out and sent hooker Jack Bergmanas in for a fine score.

Three minutes later Luis Ball made a barnstorming break deep inside the Bishop’s 22, before the ball was fed to Joe Barker who threw a terrific long miss-pass to Dan Leake who charged in for his second try of the game in the corner.

Dolly added a penalty on 50 minutes to give Rotherham a 10 point advantage at 31-21.

Not surprisingly however Stortford responded and secured their bonus-point try on 66 minutes. The surprise came when referee Jack Lewars awarded Bishop’s a penalty try at the first penalty Rotherham conceded at a scrum 5 metres from their own line to draw the visitors to within 3 points.

How Titans would have wished all referees in the division did this upon the first penalty at scrum-time, as surely penalty try would be their leading try scorer of the season!

Nevertheless Titans responded 7 minutes from time when lock forward Dan Preston-Routledge popped up on the right wing to barge his way over to cap an outstanding personal performance. Dolly again impressed with the boot from the touchline to re-establish a 10-point buffer.

One minute from time Bishop’s work rate and persistence paid off when centre Reuben Bird-Tulloch showed good pace and strength to run in for his second try of the match. Banks added the extras to make it a 3 point game and set up a nervy finale.

However deep into injury time Dolly added a penalty to see out the game for the home side and send the Titans faithful into the bar happy!

A delighted Joe Barker commenting after the game said, “The boys responded really well in the second half; we knew both in attack and defence we could take control of the game and we knew we needed to speed up the breakdown and to test them either side, rather than just going the same way all the time.

“So we made a few small changes at the break and these lads acted on it; but what I’m most proud of is that I questioned them on Tuesday on how we’d performed at Cinderford because that wasn’t us and they’ve gone out and rewarded me and everyone connected with the club with what they’ve gone out and done today.

“You just can’t fault their effort and how they’ve gone about it today, because they’ve played some outstanding rugby and there’s been some outstanding individual stuff as well as what we’ve achieved as a team.

So I am very proud of these lads and what they’ve achieved for the club this year.”

Referee: Jack Lewars

Attendance: 547

Yellow Card: Richardson (Titans), Duff (Bishop's Stortford)

Titans: Leake (2T), Poole (T), Bergmanas, (T), Preston-Routledge (T), Dolly (5C, 2P)

Bishop's Stortford: Bird-Tulloch (2T), Smith (T), Penalty Try, Banks (1T, 4C)

Titans: 15 Sam Allan (Dever 70), 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Joe Barker (Dunne 69), 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 54), 3 Will Dennis (Stout 56), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Kieran Frost (Keys 58), 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Conor Keys, 19 Connor Dever, 20 Harry Dunne.

Bishop's Stortford: 15 Nicholas Hankin, 14 Rob Duff, 13 Reuben Bird-Tulloch, 12 Jack Scantlebury (Hitchcock 60), 11 Chris Smith, 10 Sam Cappaert (Coleman 49), 9 Tom Banks, 1 Seb Brownhill (Harrison-Price 64), 2 Harrison King (Caulfield 44) (King 64), 3 Benjamin Harrison-Price (McCrone 54), 4 Mark McCraith (Jones 49), 5 Matt Tomlinson (Capt.), 6 James Apperley, 7 Rory Banks, 8 Steve Ball.

Replacements: 16 Declan Caulfield, 17 Tom McCrone, 18 Ollie Jones, 19 Tom Hitchcock, 20 Tom Coleman.

Cinderford 36 Titans 19

Rotherham Titans first ever visit to Cinderford ended in disappointment as they crashed 36-19 to the South West side at Dockham Road.

The victory for Cinderford all but guarantees them their place in National 1 for next term whilst Titans aim of a top 6 finish took a bit of a knock.

Rotherham will have been disappointed with their overall performance, as all too often they gave away possession at crucial times.

Titans never lead at any point in the game but were still within touching distance at the break as they went in trailing by just five points at 17-12. Tries from number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor and winger Connor Field gave the South Yorkshire side hope that they could mount a second half fightback to make it three wins on the bounce.

However, that challenge never really materialised as the hosts scored a further three second half tries to Titans solitary effort from flanker Zak Poole.

Titans did create pressure close to the host’s line late on from the scrum, as they attempted to pick up a 4-try bonus point. However, the opportunity was lost and the Titans went pointless for the first time in 11 games.

Speaking post-match Titans Joe Barker explained, “We are disappointed with how things have gone today, especially after the last 2 weeks where the boys have worked so hard for two very good wins. We’ve shown some promising signs recently, but I think today we seem to have taken a backwards step and that’s the disappointing thing.

“It wasn’t down to a lack of effort, you’ll never get that from this set of lads because they always put in the graft, but mentally we just weren’t at the races today.

“I think we were strong defensively in the first half apart from the odd individual error, but as a defensive unit the team did well. Unfortunately in attack we just couldn’t get our game going as well as we know we can and I think that’s what let us down.

“Fair play to Cinderford though, they retained the ball very well and kept it from us for prolong periods of the game. Then when we did manage to get some possession, all too often we gave it away cheaply and when you do that at this level it’s very difficult to win games of rugby.

“We’ve now got to dust ourselves down and work really hard in training so we can finish of our home campaign with a positive performance against Bishop’s Stortford. I think overall we’ve had an impressive year from these young lads and it would be great if we could finish on a high in front of our fantastic supporters.”

Referee: James O'Brien

Attendance: 360

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Nagle-Taylor (T), Field (T), Poole (T), Irvine (2C)

Cinderford: Babarinsa (2T), Hone (T), Ryan (T), Mullis (T), Hemming (4C, P)

Titans: 15 Sam Allan, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 55), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 55), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Keys 65), 5 Jamie Ure (Preston-Routledge 79), 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Conor Keys, 19 Alex Dolly, 20 Ellis Abrahams.

Cinderford: 15 Alex Frame, 14 Sam Smith (Pointon 72), 13 Terence Babarinsa, 12 Jack Hayes, 11 Reuben Norville, 10 Liam Hemming, 9 Ewan Fenley, 1 George Porter (Capt.) (Smart 62), 2 Jack Preece, 3 Tim Brockett (Elliot 40), 4 George Evans, 5 Dale Lemon, 6 Aaron Ryan (Bennett 70), 7 Daniel Broady (Mullis 58), 8 Harry Hone.

Replacements: 16 Joe Smart, 17 James Elliot, 18 Joe Mullis, 19 Matthew Bennett, 20 Danny Pointon.

Titans 29 Caldy 5

Rotherham Titans claimed their second successive 5 point win with a worthy 29-5 victory over a tenacious Caldy side at a sunny Clifton Lane.

Two tries by Jack Bergmanas and one each from Callum Irvine and Ali Thomson, plus nine points from the boot of Alex Dolly proved to be enough to secure the points for Rotherham.

Titans’ victory ensured they did the ‘double’ over their North West opposition this term, having triumphed 33-29 at Paton Field earlier in the season.

In fact the only side to date Titans haven’t registered a win against in National 1 is top of the table side Ampthill; only Old Elthamians in second place, who the Titans face on the last day of the season can emulate that.

The game itself saw Rotherham enjoy long periods of territory and possession and ultimately run out healthy winners, achieving their third biggest margin of victory this season.

However, they did have to wait for an Alex Dolly penalty on 17 minutes before they eventually got the scoreboard moving; the Sydney-born scrum half nailed his impressive effort from out wide on the left hand side.

The pressure Titans forwards exerted on Caldy inevitably paid off shortly after when in the space of 10 minutes Rotherham hooker Jack Bergmanas crashed over for a brace of tries. Both stemmed from catch and drives close to the line and both were expertly converted by Dolly to see Titans race into a 17-0 lead.

The one disappointment during the match for Rotherham came in the final play of the first half when Caldy full back Lewis Barker ran in all too easy for his side’s only points of the game, which sent the Titans in at the break leading 17-5.

The second period resumed in similar fashion to the first and the Caldy boys have to be credited as their defence repeatedly held out the home side under the sternest of pressure.

However, on the hour mark after another sustained period of pressure, one in which the Titans retained the ball for multi-phases, the inevitable breach of the defensive line was exploited when fly half Callum Irvine skipped through to dot down under the posts. Dolly’s converted to make it 24-5.

With the result now effectively in the bag, the one question which remained unanswered is would the home side be able to score a bonus-point try. The Titans faithful had to wait until 2 minutes from time for the answer, which eventually came from replacement hooker Ali Thomson who crashed over from the tail of a maul in the corner to round off an effective Rotherham performance.

Commenting on his sides victory post-match, Joe Barker explained, “I don’t think we’ve had a game like this one for a while, where we were fairly comfortable for pretty much the full 80 minutes. There were times when Caldy did put us under pressure, but we managed to weather those periods when they came and I don’t think we spent too much time in our own 22.

“I was pleased with how the boys controlled the game, obviously we still have lots of areas where we can improve but that will always be the case in rugby. I thought defensively we were really strong, as conceding only 5 points in a game would suggest.

“Our penalty count was pretty low too and that helps to keep the opposition out of your 22. Our attack started to flow better in the second half and we showed some good variety, after our pack had done some great work in the first half. And without being too picky I think we left at least another 2 tries out there; but we’ll take the result and build towards Cinderford.”

Referee: John Meredith

Attendance: 696

Yellow Card: Nagle-Taylor (Titans)

Red Card: Salisbury (Caldy)

Titans: Bergmanas (2T), Irvine (T), Thomson (T), Dolly (P, 3C)

Caldy: Barker (T)

Titans: 15 Dan Leake, 14 Henry Roberts (Allan 63), 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne (Abrahams 50), 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 50), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 49), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Ure 70), 5 Jamie Ure (Cotterill 40), 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Tom Cotterill, 19 Sam Allan, 20 Ellis Abrahams.

Caldy: 15 Lewis Barker (Dickinson 79), 14 Nick Royle, 13 Luke Hibberd, 12 Mike Barlow, 11 Rory Hardman, 10 Rhys Hayes, 9 Jake Squirrel (Jones 73), 1 John Whittaker, 2 Callum Ridgway (O'Donnell 47), 3 Derek Salisbury, 4 Jack Collister (McGowan 73), 5 Tom Sanders (Capt.), 6 David Jones (Crowe 60), 7 Nyle Davidson (Ridgway 65), 8 JJ Dickinson (Cross 74).

Replacements: 16 Rob O'Donnell, 17 Louis McGowan, 18 Stuart Cross, 19 Harrison Crowe, 20 Ben Jones.

Cambridge 20 Titans 24

Rotherham Titans put in a strong second half performance to overcome a determined Cambridge side 24-20 at Grantchester Road to record their 14th National 1 win of the season.

The victory sees Rotherham move ahead of Chinnor and Darlington Mowden Park into fifth spot in the table as they aim to finish off the season in strong fashion.

However, Titans endured a messy start to the clash and found themselves trailing as early as the third minute when some sloppy tackling enabled Cambridge winger Joe Green to score his side’s first try. Ben Penfold impressed from out wide in the windy conditions to add the extras and give the hosts a dream start.

One aspect of the Titans game which has impressed of late is the set scrum and again this facet paid dividends. On 12 minutes following a series of penalties given away at the set piece referee Richard Haughton was left with no alternative but to award a penalty try to level matters at 7 apiece.

At this stage of the contest however the home side looked much the brighter and clinically exposed Titans lacklustre start to the match when in a three minute spell they crossed the whitewash twice.

Firstly on 19 minutes following a good period of possession fly half Ben Penfold chipped through cleverly for full back Mike Ayrton to dot down and then the fly half was involved again as he popped a pass outside to Ned Brown who fed flanker Louis Rawlings to run in for an easy try. Both conversions were missed in the ever-increasing windy conditions.

Trailing 17-7 and having conceded three tries in the opening 22 minutes and with the home side looking full of energy and enthusiasm, the afternoon looked as if it would be a long one for the South Yorkshire side.

However, time and again this term this young Titans squad has shown an abundance of fight and character beyond their years and they were about to show it once more against Cambridge.

In the final play of the first half Rotherham pressed with urgency deep inside the host’s 22, before the ball arrived with Callum Irvine who threw a long miss pass over the top to find winger Henry Roberts who raced in to score near the corner. The conversion was held up in the wind and fell just short to leave Titans trailing at the break 17-12.

Rotherham continued their improvement in the second period and generally bossed matters for much of the half.

Titans improved performance led to their third try on 54 minutes when from a five metre line out hooker Jack Bergmanas dotted down from the tail of a maul. Irvine’s narrow miss with the extras left the game poised at 17 apiece.

Cambridge never once lacked energy in their workload and after a short period of intense pressure inside the Titans 22 drew a penalty, which Penfold knocked over from in front of the sticks to nose his side in front 20-17.

Back came Rotherham and a sustained period of pressure followed inside the host’s 22. Finally eight minutes from time and from another series of scrums close to the Cambridge line Rotherham were awarded another penalty try to give them the lead for the first time in the match.

A massive period of Cambridge pressure followed as they attempted to be the second team this season to do the ‘double’ over Rotherham. However, Titans demonstrated incredible tenacity in defence to hold on and secure their first away win since December.

Commenting post-match Joe Barker explained, “We know these lads have got bags of character and they definitely showed that again today. At one point we had a defensive set on the edge of our 22 near the end and we managed to push them back into their own half which was an outstanding effort.

“At that point we didn’t give away any penalties in what was a multi-phase period for them and we were winning the collisions. In the first half we didn’t win those collisions and we weren’t going at them, we were slow getting off the line and we were holding off even though we were in the right positions.

“We corrected that at half time and in the second half and we increased our tempo in how we wanted to play in attack and we moved them around and we managed to score some points. It was a good second half performance and the lads fully deserved the five points and it’s all credit to them for the win.”

Referee: Richard Haughton

Attendance: 530

Yellow Card: Baxter (Cambridge)

Titans: Penalty Try (2T), Roberts (T), Bergmanas (T)

Cambridge: Green (T), M Ayrton (T), Rawlings (T), Penfold (1C, 1P)

Titans: 15 Dan Leake, 14 Henry Roberts, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas, 3 Will Dennis (Stout 20) (Dennis 69), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Jamie Ure (Frost 47), 6 Luis Ball (Cotterill 47), 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Kieran Frost, 19 Tom Cotterill, 20 Alex Dolly.

Cambridge: 15 Mike Ayrton, 14 Nana Asiedu, 13 Ned Brown (Rayner 80), 12 James Ayrton (Yawayawa 26) (J Ayrton 36) (Yawayawa 41), 11 Joe Green, 10 Ben Penfold, 9 Kieran Duffin, 1 Ramaz Rukhadze (Peck 12), 2 Alex Rayment (Ruddock 54), 3 Jack Higgins, 4 George Bretag-Norris, 5 Gareth Baxter, 6 Darren Fox (Capt.), 7 Louis Rawlings (Moore 71), 8 Ciaran Moore (McCloud 47).

Replacements: Cameron Ruddock, 17 Henry Peck, 18 Jake McCloud, 19 Lawrence Rayner, 20 Sam Yawayawa.

Titans 24 Ampthill 36

A performance with lots of effort and endeavour was ultimately not enough for Rotherham as they went down 36-24 to Ampthill at Clifton Lane.

Titans were outscored by 5 tries to four, with Jamie Cooke, Seb Nagle-Taylor and a brace from winger Dan Leake securing a losing bonus point for the South Yorkshire side.

In what was always going to be a challenging encounter against the joint top-of-the-league side, Rotherham actually started the brighter and took the lead on 5 minutes.

From a line out on the edge of the Ampthill 22 the ball arrived with Jamie Cooke; the powerful centre smashed his way through the defence to run in and score next to the posts. Connor Dever added the extras to seal a perfect start for the hosts.

The reason Ampthill are joint top is because they are a very decent side, with plenty of experience in the pack and lots of pace in the backs.

This was demonstrated throughout the first half as they crossed the whitewash three times through second rower Jonathan Kpoku, winger Nigel Baker and centre Ollie Morris, with the first two tries being converted by former Canadian international full back James Pritchard.

Trailing 19-7 at the break Rotherham made a better fist of things in the second half, which ultimately played out as a draw.

On 53 minutes Seb Nagle-Taylor picked up from the base of a ruck to charge his way through from 35 metres for a fine try, following what had been a decent period of possession for the Titans.

However, before the hour mark the visitors effectively sealed the game with another two converted tries from back rower and skipper Billy Johnson and replacement front rower Ralph Adams-Hale to make the score 33-12.

Credit to the home side though as they showed good character to keep on battling and a determination not to roll over.

On 65 minutes following a series of pick and goes close to the visitor’s line, the ball was flung out to winger Dan Leake who showed good strength to power through under the sternest of pressure. Dever converted to leave Titans trailing by 14 points and with an outside chance of getting something from the game.

However, late on that appeared a forlorn task as Ampthill’s fly half Josh Sharp knocked over a penalty to stretch his sides lead to 17 points.

Not to be outdone though, in the final play of the match Titans did collect a deserved point for their efforts as Dan Leake dived over in the corner for a bonus-point try.

Speaking after the game a disappointed Joe Barker explained, “Today’s performance showed what we’re like as a squad at the moment; at times we can show some outstanding defensive and attacking sets, but we’re just not consistent enough.

“The tempo of the game wasn’t what we wanted it to be; when teams play like that we need to find ways of raising the tempo to the level we want and to move teams around and keep the ball alive.

“So I think that’s we’re we are as a squad and that’s frustrating because we can see the quality is there both in defence and attack, but the consistency.

“Playing in patches really doesn’t work and we gifted them two, maybe three tries and that’s the game there. I thought we scored some good tries and we deservedly picked up a point for that.”

Referee: Nick Wood

Attendance: 504

Yellow Card: Collins (Ampthill)

Titans: Leake (2T), Cooke (T), Nagle-Taylor (T), Dever, (2C)

Ampthill: Kpoku (T), Baker (T), Morris (T), Johnson (T), Adams-Hale (T), Pritchard, (4C), Sharp (P)

Titans: 15 Tom Allott, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson (Williams 60), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 60), 3 Will Dennis (Stout 24) (Dennis 40), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Cotterill 40), 5 Jamie Ure, 6 Luis Ball (Preston-Routledge 42) (Ball 64), 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Jessie Williams, 18 Rikki Stout, 19 Tom Cotterill, 20 Alex Dolly.   

Ampthill: 15 James Pritchard (Whyte 69), 14 Spencer Sutherland, 13 Ollie Morris, 12 Sam Hanks, 11 Nigel Baker (Tonga’uiha 80), 10 Josh Sharp, 9 Kevin Barrett (McKirdy 64), 1 Soane Tonga’uiha (Adams-Hale 40), 2 Syd Blackmore (Molitika 64), 3 Matt Collins, 4 Henri Williams (Hudson 17), 5 Jonathan Kpoku, 6 Billy Johnson (Capt.), 7 Joe Bercis, 8 Maama Molitika (Walliker 40).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Walliker, 17 Ralph Adams-Hale, 18 Sam Hudson, 19 Euan McKirdy, 20 Ciaran Whyte.

Chinnor 48 Titans 35

Rotherham Titans put in a sterling effort before eventually going down 48-35 to a lively Chinnor side on a surprisingly warm and sunny February afternoon at Kingsey Road.

The hosts outscored the Titans by six tries to four, meaning the South Yorkshire side collected a try-scoring bonus point, leaving them fifth in the table, one place ahead of Chinnor.

The contest, in which Rotherham trailed for much of the match, was still a live affair until the 77th minute. Trailing by just 6 points Titans went in search of a thrilling victory. Unfortunately for them, as they attacked from deep they threw an interception for winger Craig Holland to run in for his hat trick and to seal an entertaining victory for his side.

Indeed it was Holland who opened this high-scoring affair as early as the fourth minute of the match, after Rotherham had kicked away possession and paid the ultimate price.

Two penalties from Alex Dolly and one from Chinnor’s Jonathan Hopkin followed as Titans trailed 10-6 after just 13 minutes.

One of the major positives for the Titans was their work at the scrum and again it proved to be a good source for scoring points. On 22 minutes following good pressure at the set piece, referee Matt Carley was left with no alternative but to award Rotherham a penalty try.

Two minutes later and a rampant Rotherham crossed the whitewash again. This time following a number of phases the ball was spread wide by Joe Barker to Henry Roberts on the left wing; Roberts showed good pace to race in for a fine try. Dolly narrowly missed the conversion from touch to leave Titans 18-10 to the good.

However, a lapse in concentration from Rotherham allowed the hosts to bounce back quickly; full back Kieran Goss and replacement prop Pat Schickerling both crossed in the space of 5 minutes to give the Thame based side a 24-18 lead.

Alex Dolly did narrow the gap to 3 points with a well taken penalty on 34 minutes, but before half time Holland raced in again for Chinnor for his second dot down to send Titans in at the break extremely disappointed to be trailing 31-21.

That disappointment was exacerbated for Rotherham on 48 minutes when second rower Tom Jubb barged his way over for Chinnor’s fifth try.

At this point the Rotherham faithful must have feared a rout; however, the South Yorkshire side showed tremendous character to mount a stern fight back.

On 62 minutes another massive series of scrums saw Titans earn a second penalty try and then following a 3 pointer from Chinnor’s Hopkin, Rotherham hooker Ali Thomson showed good footwork to dance his way through to touch down under the posts. Dolly’s conversion left Titans trailing by just 6 points with 3 minutes plus injury time remaining.

Titans now had a real buzz and energy about their work and they knew a converted try would give them a one point victory. However, in their eagerness to snatch the win they unfortunately threw an interception for Chinnor to seal the match.

Commenting post-game Joe Barker explained, “Chinnor scored some good individual tries which put them away from us at different points in the game, but when we had the ball I think we scored some great team tries and at times we put in some of the best attacking rugby we’ve done all season. There were periods when we tried to force things, but in terms of effort and the type of rugby we displayed I have to be proud of the lads.

“There was some good stuff from us in the first half but more so in the second forty; we’re not going to be scoring individual tries from the full length of the pitch like they did, but as a team we created some great opportunities because the boys grafted so hard.

“It’s tough for any team to come here, but we came here with 10 injuries and people playing out of position and for the lads to put in a shift like that and to put in some of the best attacking rugby that we’ve put together all season was great to see.

“We’ve now just got to build on this as a squad; individually we’ve got to be better in defence, especially in these dry weather conditions. However, I think as a whole, the squad put in the best attacking rugby that Rotherham has seen in a while and that was good to see.”

Referee: Matthew Carley

Attendance: 306

Yellow Card: Gilding (Chinnor)

Titans: Penalty Try (2T), Roberts (T), Thomson (T), Dolly (3P, C)

Chinnor: Holland (3T), Goss (T), Schickerling (T), Jubb (T), Hopkin (2P, 6C)

Titans: 15 Alex Dolly, 14 Dan Leake (Allott 36), 13 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.), 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Henry Roberts, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 54), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Jamie Ure, 5 Kieran Frost (Preston-Routledge 61), 6 Luis Ball (Frost 65), 7 Tom Cotterill, 8 Zak Poole.

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Antony Dickinson, 18 Dan Preston-Routledge, 19 Christian Head, 20 Tom Allott. 

Chinnor: 15 Kieran Goss (Betts 70) (Goss 80), 14 Craig Holland, 13 Reon Joseph, 12 Greg King, 11 Josh Hodson (Barnes 32), 10 Jonathan Hopkin, 9 Ed Hoadley (Goodfellow 65), 1 Ben Betts (Southworth 54), 2 Max Norey (George 65), 3 Jack Gilding (Schickerling 22) (Gilding 54), 4 Ben Thomas, 5 Tom Jubb, 6 Ben Manning, 7 George Oliver (Capt.), 8 William Ryan.

Replacements: 16 Pat Schickerling, 17 Danny Southworth, 18 Dan George, 19 Grieg Goodfellow, 20 Dan Barnes.

Photo courtesy of Aaron Bayliss

Plymouth Albion 24 Titans 17

Rotherham Titans put in a tremendous effort before eventually going down 24-17 to a determined Plymouth Albion side at Brickfields.

Titans collected a losing bonus point for their endeavours, but ultimately what cost them victory was their indifferent start to a game which saw them trail 14-0 inside the first 20 minutes.

Rotherham pretty much bossed the final 50 minutes of an enthralling contest, but the home side showed great determination in defence to hold out for a crucial win.

Titans overall strength was undoubtedly their scrum, which pretty much dismantled the opposition throughout the match. However, their line-out proved to be their Achilles heel as all too often at critical times in the game it let them down badly.

After tries from Albion backs Jon Dawe and Jack Arnott, both of which were converted by full back Matt Shepherd on 17 minutes, it was always going to be difficult for Rotherham to overcome their deficit. But try they did and they are to be commended for their determined approach and never-say-die attitude.

Titans Alex Dolly and Albion’s Shepherd traded penalties late in the half, before deep into injury time Titans number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor rounded off a sweeping move to score near the posts. Dolly added the extras to send his side in at the break trailing 17-10.

Rotherham’s aim would have been to score first in the second period; however Albion doubled their advantage to 14 points on 54 minutes when a five metre catch and drive was finished off by ex-Titan hooker Davy McGregor, with Shepherd adding the extras.

Undeterred by the set-back Rotherham continued to power forward and enjoyed large spells of dominance, both in terms of territory and possession.

On 67 minutes Titans reduced their arrears to 7 points when Nagle-Taylor dotted down from the tail of a scrum for Dolly to convert the extras. There was some surprise that Albion didn’t receive a yellow card at this juncture as they conceded numerous penalties, as their set-piece crumbled and disintegrated under huge Titans pressure.

However, the score set up the game nicely for an excitingly tense finish; but as hard they tried Rotherham were just unable to convert their dominance into points. Ironically in the 87th minute Albion received a yellow card for their repeated transgressions, but all too late to make any real significance on the game.

Commenting post-match Titans Joe Barker explained, “Based on the full 80 minutes and if you look at the stats overall I think the better side lost today and as such we are very disappointed with the outcome. However, we weren’t the better team in the first 30 minutes, despite showing glimpse of what we are capable of we trailed 14-0 and ultimately that indifferent start cost us the game.

“You just can’t get into the opponents red zone as often as we did and lose the ball, whether that is at line-outs, at the breakdown or whatever. We dominated for long periods but our errors cost us the win.

“But to be fair to the boys they showed tremendous resilience and character to keep coming back, no matter what happened during the game; a lot of stuff didn’t go our way but the boys were outstanding in their efforts to keep on battling against all the obstacles in their way and I’m proud of them for that.”

Referee: Veryan Boscawen

Attendance: 1100

Yellow Card: Swain (Albion)

Titans: Nagle-Taylor (2T), Dolly (P, 2C)

Plymouth Albion: Dawe (T), Arnott (T), McGregor (T), Shepherd (P, 3C)

Titans: 15 Alex Dolly, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Ellis Abrahams, 12 Joe Barker (Cooke 40), 11 Connor Field, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 50), 3 Will Dennis, 4 Jamie Ure (Preston-Routledge 50), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Luis Ball (Cotterill 56), 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Dan Preston-Routledge, 19 Tom Cotterill, 20 Jamie Cooke.

Plymouth Albion: 15 Matt Shepherd, 14 Josh Skelcey, 13 Jon Dawe (Powell 74), 12 Dean Squire, 11 Jack Arnott, 10 Connor Eastgate, 9 Cameron Setter (Snow 64), 1 James Kenny (Pullinger 67), 2 Ashlee Crouch (McGregor 46), 3 Dan Pullinger (Norton 56), 4 Lewis Pearson, 5 Dan Swain, 6 George Mills, 7 Flynn Elworthy (Tuima 64), 8 Herbie Stupple (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Davy McGregor, 17 Rusi Tuima, 18 Will Norton, 19 Joe Snow, 20 Dan Powell.

Titans 22 Esher 12

Rotherham Titans returned to winning ways with a worthy 22-12 win over an impressive Esher outfit at Clifton Lane.

A disjointed first half performance from Rotherham, in difficult blustery conditions, was quickly forgotten as they put in a powerful second half shift, which saw replacement number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor score a hat trick of tries.

The bonus-point victory was based on an impressive second half scrum effort from the South Yorkshire side, as the platform it set undoubtedly led them to a deserved victory.

Rotherham started the game in bright fashion and quickly took the lead on 6 minutes when tight head prop and skipper for the day, Rikki Stout, barged his way over from a catch and drive five metres from the line. Callum Irvine hit the post with his conversion attempt from out wide in difficult conditions.

Although Titans continued to have good territory and possession the visitors defended with good intensity and forced the home side into errors in handling.

Eventually Esher made their way into Titans territory and after a number of phases they worked the ball across field for outside centre Dan Rowland to dive over in the corner for an unconverted try. Rotherham would have been disappointed with their defensive efforts for the score.

Esher took confidence from their success and enjoyed the better of the latter stages of the half, although there would be no more points added as the teams went in at the break at 5-5.

The visitors would have come out for the second period full of confidence and with a strong wind now at their backs they would probably have been favourites to win the game.

However, at half time Rotherham made a number of changes to their pack which would eventually make the difference at the end.

Before that though it was Esher who took the lead 8 minutes into the second half when loose head prop Matt Lowes crashed over from the tail of a driving maul. Impressively from the touchline Owen Waters added the extras to extend his side’s advantage to 12-5.

Rotherham then showed good character to force their way back into the game and as their scrum started to demonstrate its dominance the confidence levels grew.

On 56 minutes replacement number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor collected from the base of a scrum five metres out, before charging his way over for Titans second try. This time Callum Irvine impressed from the tee in the difficult conditions to level the scores.

From here on in the momentum of the game shifted and Titans always looked as though they would go on to grab the win. On 68 minutes Titans re-took the lead from a five metre line-out which saw Nagle-Taylor touch down from the tail.

Then three minutes from time the impressive Nagle-Taylor was on hand again. This time from a scrum close to the line Connor Dever popped an inside pass to the number 8 for his hat-trick and to secure the bonus point win.

Commenting post-match Joe Barker explained, “We did struggle in some areas in the first half, but what we did do in that period was tire them in the way we played and we did actually play some good rugby too. At times it maybe didn’t come off, but we knew we had it in us and we defended really well.

“In the second half we showed that when it does all click we can get over the line and we scored four tries to get the bonus point win.

“After the last couple of weeks and the disappointment of those results, to get a five point win at home is really pleasing. The lads have been putting it in hard in training and we’ve been very honest with ourselves within the group and everyone has taken ownership for their roles.

“Esher had a big pack, but we managed to move them around and that had an effect in the second half. The ball was in-play a lot today and that too had an effect.

“We had a positive influence from the bench and Seb made a huge impact when we brought him on in the second half. Obviously he’s very powerful off the back of the scrum and massive credit to the front five for setting the platform for Seb to do what he did.

“So we’re delighted to get the win, but we must now quickly switch our focus on to Plymouth. They are a much-improved side from when we played them earlier in the season; it will be a tough game of rugby, but one we are capable of winning if we get everything right.”

Referee: Harry Walbaum

Attendance: 534

Yellow Card: None

Titans: Nagle-Taylor (3T), Stout (T), Irvine (1C)

Esher: Rowland (T), Lowes (T), O Waters (1C)

Titans: 15 Sam Allan, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne (Dolly 69), 12 Joe Barker, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Callum Irvine, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Ali Thomson (Bergmanas 40), 3 Rikki Stout (Capt.) (Dennis 56), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge (Ure 40), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Luis Ball, 7 Tom Cotterill (Poole 58), 8 Zak Poole (Nagle-Taylor 40).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Jamie Ure, 19 Seb Nagle-Taylor, 20 Alex Dolly.

Esher Rugby: 15 Callum Monks, 14 Joe Beckett, 13 Dan Rowland, 12 Tom Cheeseman (Fluker 38), 11 Tom James (Irving 29), 10 Owen Waters (Cheeseman 57), 9 Jack Walsh, 1 Matt Lowes (Mines 46) (Zeiss 69), 2 Rhodri Tanner (Hope 46) (Tanner 69), 3 Cameron Zeiss (Lowes 55), 4 Andy Hore, 5 Devin Montgomery, 6 Cameron Gentles, 7 Charlie Gossington (Capt.), 8 Robert Dudley-Jones (Moore-Aiono 54).

Replacements: 16 Devlin Hope, 17 Oliver Mines, 18 Izzy Moore-Aiono, 19 Kariym Irving, 20 Andrew Fluker.

Titans 23 Loughborough Students 29

Rotherham Titans suffered a disappointing 29-23 home defeat to bottom placed side Loughborough Students.

A penalty try, a Harry Dunne try and 11 points from the tee from Alex Dolly managed to salve a bonus point for the South Yorkshire side.

However, that was little consolation for a team who have grand ambitions in National 1 and who for the second week in succession will look inwards at why they didn’t come away with a victory over a bottom-end placed side in the division.

The first 30 minutes went according to plan for Rotherham; an early penalty from Alex Dolly and a penalty try from a pack which demonstrated great dominance at the set scrum saw the hosts comfortably race into a 10-0 lead.

However, not for the first time recently Titans were unable to convert their pressure into points and when 6 minutes before the break Loughborough’s full back Tim Bitirim charged through to score with little interference, the alarm bells started to ring.

Deep into first half injury time Dolly added a second penalty, but within a minute of the restart Titans yet again offered little resistance as Bitirim went over in the corner for his second try. The conversion from Charlie Reed was added to give the visitors a surprise 14-13 lead.

Dolly and Reed then traded penalties before on the hour mark Harry Dunne finished off a good Titans move which saw the centre go over for his seventh try of the season. Dolly’s extras gave the hosts a 6 point lead and a base from which to kick on and seal the game.

However, that wasn’t to be as two tries from the visitors inside the final 6 minutes from Bitirim and replacement prop Ben Christie meant Rotherham had to settle for an unsatisfactory losing bonus point.

Speaking afterwards a disappointed Joe Barker explained, “That was not good enough and that’s not Rotherham. We were very patchy and although we were good at times, we weren’t good enough for long enough and we were inconsistent.

“I would also say in the four games since Christmas we haven’t performed well. Some of our lads have got to have a look at themselves off the pitch so we can perform on the pitch, because it’s not been good enough as a squad.

“It always hurts when you lose, but this one hurts so much more because we were poor. We can no longer use the excuse of being a new squad and we can’t have any excuses for this one.

“Certain individuals didn’t get their jobs right; as a team once we got into our defensive sets we were completely fine, but at times some individuals just switched off and that isn’t good enough.

“At 10-0 up we should have finished the game off but we didn’t and we paid for that. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement; we’ve let ourselves down and we’ve let the club down today.”

Referee: John Meredith

Attendance: 582

Yellow Card: Boye (Loughborough)

Titans: Pen Try, Dunne (T), Dolly (3P, C)

Loughborough Students: Bitirim (3T), Christie (T), Reed (P, 3C)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Harry Dunne (Dever 62), 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Alex Dolly, 1 Dan Richardson (Williams 62), 2 Ali Thomson, 3 Rikki Stout (47), 4 Luis Ball, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Tom Cotterill (Preston-Routledge 70), 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Jessie Williams, 18 Will Dennis, 19 Dan Preston-Routledge, 20 Connor Dever.

Loughborough Students: 15 Tim Bitirim, 14 Will Attfield, 13 Alex Glashan (Capt.), 12 Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas, 11 Will Brown, 10 Charlie Reed, 9 Jack Moates (Watson 60), 1 Keston Lines (Christie 50), 2 Harry Newborn (Adams 50), 3 Andrew Boye (Lines 65), 4 Cameron Boon, 5 Sam Bailey, 6 Thibaud Flament, 7 Musa Yusuff, 8 Ogwenesuvwe Obano (Van Der Ploeg 34).

Replacements: 16 Oliver Adams, 17 Ben Christie, 18 Adrian Van Der Ploeg, 19 Callum Watson, 20 Matt Edwards.

Sale FC 13 Titans 12

Rotherham Titans endured a bad day at the office as they crashed to a disappointing 13-12 defeat away to Sale FC.

Titans crossed the whitewash twice through Kieran Frost and Henry Roberts, with Ellis Abrahams adding a conversion to collect a losing bonus point.

Missing 11 points from the tee didn’t help the Titans cause and they will now look to bounce back against Loughborough Student at Clifton Lane on Saturday.

Titans have had their fair share of closing out tight games in their favour and have enjoyed the huge satisfaction that comes with those outcomes.

This time against Sale they couldn’t do that and instead they left Heywood Road with the bitter taste of regret and to make matters worse for Titans it was a game they should have won comfortably.

Titans started much the brighter, but despite this had to wait until the 22nd minute to take the lead through lock forward Kieran Frost, who barged his way over following some good forward pressure from his pack mates. Ellis Abrahams converted to make it 7-0.

Sale showed lots of endeavour but found it difficult to penetrate the Rotherham line; this was until the 34th minute when bulky prop forward used his physical advantages to dot down from the tail of a maul. Scrum half Matt Bradley missed the extras.

Despite Titans having much the better of territory and possession during the first period, to go in at the break leading by only 2 points would have been disappointing for them.

However, they would have been delighted when winger Henry Roberts danced his way through the Sale defence just 4 minutes into the second half for a fine individual try. Crucially the conversion was missed from out wide.

On 53 minutes a poor kick-chase by Rotherham saw the home side move the ball quickly across the field for winger Anthony Bingham to touch down in the corner. Bradley missed the conversion to leave Titans 12-10 to the good.

As the game moved into the final quarter Titans appeared to lose their way somewhat and the all-round advantages they’d enjoyed earlier seemed to be decreasing.

However, when they were awarded a penalty on 62 minutes they had an opportunity to take their lead to 4 points; unfortunately for the South Yorkshire side the opportunity was missed.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes and with a feeling of inevitability about it, the home side were awarded a penalty which Bradley knocked through the sticks to edge his side 13-12 ahead.

The remainder of the contest saw Rotherham throw everything they had at Sale, but credit to the home side as they managed to withstand the huge pressure that came their way to hold out for a crucial victory.

Post match a disappointed Joe Barker explained, “We should have controlled the game better than we did and we probably should have been a lot further ahead at half time. We scored first in the second half with a good try and we should have kicked on from there, but instead of doing that we let them back into the game.

“Overall our performance just wasn’t good enough today; we weren’t ruthless enough to finish it off and we were slack in the small areas and although we were good in other aspects of the game, the small detail killed us today.

“Credit to Sale they finished the game off and they came back at us and scored a good try to be fair, but that came about from our poor kick-chase and it is disappointing because these lads have got it in them but they’ve got to be there mentally on the day and they’ve got to stay in it for 80 minutes.

“You have to be constantly on it and you have to make sure you’re doing the small things every bit as much as the bigger things and if everyone was doing that today we would have got the result, but that wasn’t the case and that’s the disappointing thing.”

Referee: Nick Wood

Attendance: 632

Yellow Card: Ball (Titans)

Titans: Frost (T), Roberts (T), Abrahams (1C)

Sale FC: Kelly (T), Bingham (T), Bradley (1P)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Ellis Abrahams (Dunne 55), 11 Henry Roberts, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Dolly 47), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 55), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 53), 4 Luis Ball, 5 Kieran Frost (Keys 40), 6 Tom Cotterill, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Conor Keys, 19 Harry Dunne, 20 Alex Dolly.

Sale FC: 15 Jonty Rawcliffe, 14 Elliot Hodgson (Owen 70), 13 Jack Moorhouse, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Anthony Bingham (Hodgson 77), 10 Matt Sturgess, 9 Matt Bradley, 1 Dan Birchall, 2 Neil Briggs (Taylor 47), 3 Joe Kelly (Aigbokhae 47), 4 Will Davies (Priestley-Nangle 67), 5 Matt Postlethwaite, 6 Andy Hughes (Capt.), 7 David Seymour, 8 Ryan Parkinson (Ailes 67).

Replacements: 16 Adam Aigbokhae, 17 Christian Taylor, 18 Stone Priestley-Nangle, 19 Tom Ailes, 20 Chris Owen.

Titans 21 Birmingham Moseley 20

Rotherham Titans showed tremendous character to snatch a dramatic 21-20 victory over Birmingham Moseley in the 94th minute with a converted try in the final play of the game.

When Moseley hooker Ryan Roach scored his hat trick driving maul try with 3 minutes remaining, to put his side 20-14 ahead, it looked a long way back for the Titans.

However, this young Titans squad showed incredible desire, character and determination to battle right to the end and their efforts were rewarded when flanker Zak Poole barged his way over following a period of enormous pressure close to the line.

Ellis Abrahams then kept his cool to slot over the conversion to send the Titans faithful into raptures.

No one would have expected so a tight, dramatic finish to a game in which the Titans started so brightly and in control. They pinged out of the box from the off and scored their first try on 4 minutes.

Good line speed by the South Yorkshire side forced Moseley into a handling error which Seb Nagle-Taylor pounced on and proceeded to gallop in from 40 metres to score under the sticks. Ellis Abrahams added the extras for a perfect start.

Rotherham continued to go about their work with lots of energy and intensity and on several occasions manoeuvred themselves into great scoring positions. Unfortunately for them a combination of poor decision making and execution combined with a tenacious opposition defence meant they were unable to breach the try line.

When Titans lost at Moseley earlier in the season, they conceded 4 tries, all of which came from the driving maul and all of which were scored by the hooker Adam Caves.

In this game Moseley were to score 3 tries and again all would come via the driving maul and again all would be scored by the hooker; only this time the hooker was Ryan Roach.   

If you have a particular strength why wouldn’t you use it? And so on 20 minutes the visitors levelled matters with their first, which centre James Williams converted.

Despite each side’s best endeavours no more points were added in the first 40 and the teams went in at the break at 7 each.

Rotherham had enjoyed the better of things during the first half but in the opening period of the second half Moseley worked themselves back into the game; this culminated with their second maul try on the hour mark – Williams missed the conversion.

However, within 5 minutes Titans bounced back with a brilliant training ground move which saw Moseley duped and scrum half Connor Dever dance his way through to score under the posts. Abrahams converted to nose Rotherham 14-12 ahead.

Frustrating for the home side they conceded a penalty almost from the restart and their lead lasted for under 2 minutes as National 1’s leading points scorer James Williams added the 3-pointer to give his side a 15-14 lead.

The contest descended into a fragmented stop-start affair which made it difficult for either side to play much rugby. However, as the clock ticked down Moseley appeared to seal victory, when Ryan Roach dived over for his third maul try. Crucially for Rotherham however, Williams narrowly missed the conversion.

In a massively tense finish which saw 14 minutes of added time, this was mainly due to Moseley relentlessly giving away penalties and which also saw lock Lewis Bean yellow carded for his part, Titans eventually bundled their way over through flanker Zak Poole, ably assisted by Luis Ball.

You could have heard a pin drop as Ellis Abrahams teed up the conversion and when the inside centre calmly struck his effort through the sticks the Titans faithful inside the ground went wild with delight.

Commenting post-match a relieved Joe Barker explained, “It was a very close match; one I think the team who played the better rugby came out on top. I think at times they managed the game situation better than us as they slowed it down to a pace they were comfortable to play at.

“They were strong in the set piece and they were strong up front like we knew they would be; but they slowed the game right down and we struggled to handle that at times. So to come back like we did was very pleasing.

“We said under the sticks after their third try that we needed to charge down the conversion, because we knew we go and win the game by 1 point. That was the belie3f of the boys even at that stage and I’m so proud of the lads for achieving that.

“It wasn’t the best of games to watch and for a variety of reasons there wasn’t much rugby played and we know we’ve got a lot of areas we need to work on if we want to achieve what we want to achieve, both as a club and as individuals.”

Referee: Alex Thomas

Attendance: 694

Yellow Card: Bean (Birmingham Moseley)

Titans: Nagle-Taylor, Dever, Poole, Abrahams (3C)

Birmingham Moseley: R Roach (3T), Williams (C, P)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Jamie Cooke, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Henry Roberts (Field 69), 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Dolly 75), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 52), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 75), 4 Conor Keys (Cotterill 40), 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.). 

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Tom Cotterill, 19 Connor Field, 20 Alex Dolly.

Birmingham Moseley: 15 Mike Penn, 14 Alex Hearle, 13 Ollie Allsopp (Fatiaki 69), 12 James Williams, 11 Louis Roach, 10 Sam Hollingsworth, 9 Rob Lewis (Capt.) (Pointon 75), 1 Joe Wrafter, 2 Ryan Roach, 3 Jay Tyack (Fidler 60), 4 Chukwuma Osazuwa, 5 Lewis Bean, 6 Jacques Le Roux (Cowan 40), 7 Josh Poole, 8 Chris Brightwell.

Replacements: 16 Adam Caves, 17 Tom Fidler, 18 Laurence Cowan, 19 Ravai Fatiaki, 20 Sam Pointon.

Photo courtesy of Rotherham Advertiser

Rosslyn Park 46 Titans 24

Rotherham Titans suffered a bad day at the office as they were well beaten 46-24 by Rosslyn Park at The Rock.

Rotherham were outscored by 7 tries to 3, with their dot downs coming from Connor Dever, Connor Field and Alex Dolly.

The defeat ends Titans unbeaten 5-match run and the South Yorkshire side will now look to bounce straight back against Birmingham Moseley at Clifton Lane on Saturday.

Titans slow start to the game didn’t help their cause and as the scoreboard pressure mounted Titans found it difficult to get their game going. As a result they went in at the break trailing 15-3 with just an Ellis Abrahams penalty to show for their efforts.

However, when scrum half Connor Dever touched down 2 minutes into the second half Rotherham’s hopes received a boost as with the conversion they reduced their arrears to 15-10

And again after conceding another Rosslyn Park try, a Connor Field converted try on 52 minutes saw Rotherham once more reduce their deficit to 5 points.

The South Yorkshire side couldn’t be criticised for their effort, but too many individual errors meant the home side were given too many opportunities to demonstrate what a good side they are.

On the hour mark former Bristol winger Charlie Amesbury ran through to extend the home side lead and when Titans’ Connor Field was rightly shown a yellow card by an eager James Clarke, the hosts ruthlessly scored two converted tries in his absence to seal the game.

Both sides scored late converted tries, but this was a game the Rotherham players will want to forget and put right as soon as possible.

Speaking after the match Titans head coach, Joe Barker, explained, “I’m very disappointed because we didn’t turn up in the first 30 minutes. I don’t know if we were over eager to do well but we need to take a good look at ourselves individually and as a team because we just weren’t at the races in the opening period.

“When you fall behind early that creates scoreboard pressure and that doesn’t help, but we kept giving them field position. We had boys switching off defensively on the inside and to be fair to Rosslyn Park they’ve got a good squad and they capitalised well on our mistakes.

“However, when we had the ball we put some really good phases together and we scored some outstanding tries and we showed glimpses of what a good side we can be. We also defended really well at times, but then we kept on making little errors and it was those errors that killed us and that just wasn’t good enough.”

Referee: James Clarke

Attendance: 695

Yellow Card: Field (Titans)

Titans: Dever (T), Field (T), Dolly (T), Abrahams (3C, P)

Rosslyn Park: Ellis (T), Gillanders (T), Hayhow (T), Amesbury (T), Marfo (T), Munro (T), Lound (T, 4C, P)

Titans: 15 Tom Allott (Dolly 49), 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne (Allott 64), 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Poole 69), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Ali Thomson (Bergmanas 62), 3 Will Dennis (Stout 62), 4 Conor Keys (Ure 64), 5 Jamie Ure (Smith-Wano 34), 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole (Frost 34), 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Rikki Stout, 18 Kieran Frost, 19 Eru Smith-Wano, 20 Alex Dolly.

Rosslyn Park: 15 Harry Leonard, 14 Connor Hayhow (Marfo 49), 13 Oliver Grove, 12 Joe Munro, 11 Charlie Amesbury, 10 Greg Lound, 9 Jack Gash, 1 Maurice Nwakor-Nwanaebi (Wade 40), 2 Tom Vaughan-Edwards (Gibson 68), 3 Paul Doran-Jones (Maguire 40), 4 Jonathan Mills (Tizard 49), 5 Greg Gillanders, 6 Adam Frampton, 7 Arthur Ellis, 8 Henry Spencer.

Replacements: 16 Karl Gibson, 17 Stewart Maguire, 18 Alistair Wade, 19 Hugh Tizard, 20 Ben Marfo.

Photo courtesy of David E Whittam

Titans 25 Darlington Mowden Park 13

Rotherham Titans put in a powerful forward performance to run out worthy 25-13 winners over Darlington Mowden Park at Clifton Lane, to make it 5 league wins on the spin.

Two tries from winger Dan Leake, one try from number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor and 10 points from the tee for Alex Dolly secured an important victory for the South Yorkshire side.

Titans remain in fifth spot in the division, but more importantly they are now just four points off the summit with 14 games remaining.

Rotherham took the lead as early as the third minute when Alex Dolly knocked over a penalty from 40 metres on the angle after Mowden were penalised at the scrum.

Former Titan favourite Garry Law levelled matters just 4 minutes later when he also impressed from the tee with a 3-pointer.

Titans regained a lead they wouldn’t relinquish on 11 minutes, when after turning ball over inside the visitors 22 they moved the ball swiftly across the park. The move saw Joe Barker, Connor Field and Alex Dolly all involved before the ball arrived with winger Dan Leake who finished off in the corner. Dolly’s attempted conversion hit the left upright.

Dolly and Law then traded penalties inside the first 20 minutes to leave the score at 11-6, as each side looked to gain the upper hand.

The momentum significantly went the way of the South Yorkshire side on the half hour mark when once again their dominance at the scrum yielded more success.

The speed at which the Mowden pack retreated would have been a concern for their coaches; however their counterparts would have been delighted when Titans number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor dotted down from the tail. Dolly added the extras to give Titans an 18-6 advantage.

Rotherham looked good value for their lead and they continued to enjoy the majority of territory and possession.

However, just before the break Mowden stunned the home side when a rare foray into the Titans 22 caught them napping as livewire scrumhalf Martin Lithgo took advantage of a lapse in concentration to dive over from the base of a ruck. Law’s conversion sent the sides in at the break with Rotherham leading 18-13.

Titans would have been disappointed to have conceded such a sloppy try at the end of the first half and Titans came out for the second period looking to put things right.

This they did after just two minutes; from a Mowden clearing kick Nagle-Taylor collected and made 20 metres up field to give Titans some positive momentum. Then following several phases the ball arrived with Joe Barker who popped a nice pass inside to Dan Leake who had come in off his wing, he then danced his way through and around the full back to score a fine try under the posts. Dolly’s extras gave Rotherham a 25-13 lead.

Remarkably there would be no more points scored in the game and to be fair to Darlington they offered much more in the second period. So whilst there may have been a slight disappointment in some quarters that a bonus point hadn’t been secured, the overall feeling in the Titans camp was one of delight.

Commenting post-match Titans Joe Barker explained, “That’s five wins out of the last game games, obviously we tried to get the bonus point, but unfortunately that didn’t come our way and that happens.

“We grafted away but we didn’t actually play that well. We dominated them in one aspect of the game which was the scrum; we scored two good tries in open play and another good scrum try again.

“We didn’t really get to do what we wanted to do and credit to them for that, they defended us quite well. At times we couldn’t find the space and we couldn’t break them down and they slowed our ball down very well; which meant we had to kick the ball away to try and get some field position because we couldn’t with ball in hand.

“However, when we did get quick ball we scored tries and we looked very threatening and at the end of the day a win is a win and we’re delighted to have won 10 of our last 12 games going into the Christmas break and we’re very excited about what we can achieve going into the New Year.”

Referee: Dan Parrott

Attendance: 684

Yellow Card: Purkiss-McEndoo (DMP), Keys (Titans)

Titans: Leake (2T), Nagle-Taylor (T), Dolly (2P, 2C)

Darlington Mowden Park: Lithgo (T), Law (2P, 1C)

Titans: 15 Alex Dolly, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne, 12 Ellis Abrahams (Cooke 68), 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever (Allott 72), 1 Dan Richardson (Williams 78), 2 Jack Bergmanas (Thomson 55), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 49), 4 Conor Keys, 5 Kieran Frost, 6 Luis Ball, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Ali Thomson, 17 Jessie Williams, 18 Will Dennis, 19 Tom Allott, 20 Jamie Cooke.

Darlington Mowden Park: 15 Chris McTurk, 14 Ollie Walker (Asher-Wood 55), 13 Callum Mackenzie, 12 Warren Seals (Walker 63), 11 Shaun McCartney, 10 Garry Law, 9 Martin Lithgo, 1 Charley Purkiss-McEndoo (Duff 37), 2 Jordon Poole, 3 Ralph Appleby, 4 Dave Fisher (Brady58), 5 Talite Vaioleti (Brown 66), 6 George Stokes (Duffy 75), 7 Matt Heaton (Capt.), 8 Joe Craggs.

Replacements: 16 Danny Brown, 17 Jake Brady, 18 Rory Duff, 19 Joe Duffy, 20 Brandon Asher-Wood.

Titans 10 Blackheath 7

Rotherham Titans can thank their pack of forwards for delivering an outstanding 10-7 victory over second placed side Blackheath at a freezing-cold Clifton Lane.

The top-of-the-table encounter wasn’t a game for the purists as the conditions didn’t allow for a free-flowing game, but both sides can be proud of their efforts as they gritted it out across the full 80 minutes.

Blackheath enjoyed the better of the first half, with Titans storming back in the second period to fully deserve their hard-earned victory in what was always going to be a low-scoring affair.

Rotherham actually started the game brightest, but were unable to convert their territorial advantage as ‘Club’ showed great determination in defence.

The visitors however gradually worked their way into the game and enjoyed some good moments through their pack as they arguably just had the edge at scrum-time and at the breakdown. Titans’ faltering lineout also helped the visitors to relieve pressure at crucial times.

However, just before the half hour mark Titans fly half Joe Barker was shown a yellow card for foul play. Before his return on 35 minutes Blackheath manoeuvred the ball from a scrum inside the Titans’ 22 to back rower Andrew Daish, who showed good strength to dot down under pressure near the posts. Joe Tarrant’s conversion gave ‘Club’ a 7-0 lead which they would hold going into the half time break.

The early action in the second period saw the visitors maintain their edge; Rotherham did work their way into good field positions, but all too often hurt themselves with silly errors at critical moments.

Arguably the turning point in the game for Rotherham came on 58 minutes. A five metre lineout to Blackheath saw their big pack of forwards set-up a driving maul, which was joined by their backs as they drove towards the Titans line.

Somehow, through sheer grit and determination the South Yorkshire side managed to repel the charge and turn over the ball. Had Blackheath scored at this point it would have been difficult to see a way back for the home team.

Conversely, this tremendous defensive moment seemed to inspire Rotherham and possibly at the same time cast doubt in the away sides mind. Either way 8 minutes later Titans levelled matters when their heroic pack of 8 marched their counterparts backwards at scrum time to force referee Harry Walbaum to award a penalty try.

With the momentum now strongly in Rotherham favour it almost seemed inevitable that they would score next; and this they did 3 minutes from time when another powerful scrum on Blackheath’s ball forced yet another penalty at the set-piece.

From inside the 22 up stepped Alex Dolly to knock over the 3-pointer which sent Titans into the lead for the first time in the game. Blackheath tried to rally late on but never threatened to add to their tally and Rotherham comfortably held on for a tremendous win.

Post-match an elated Joe Barker said, “The win was very satisfying; we knew beforehand what a good side they were and they showed that all afternoon. However, the lads showed pure grit to get us over the line and they just never gave up.

“We have to say a massive thanks to our front row boys and up front I thought we were outstanding. Once our lads started to have some success at scrum time, they smelt the blood and really took them on, and they won us the game today.

“As did our defensive sets; the lads showed terrific togetherness and pure character of what they are about; the dog they showed was exemplary, we’ve had that each week, but today we saw that in full force.”

Referee: Harry Walbaum

Attendance: 620

Yellow Card: Barker (Titans), Stradwick & Daish (Blackheath)

Titans: Penalty Try, Dolly (1P)

Blackheath: Daish (T), Tarrant (1C)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine (Dolly 35), 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Connor Dever, 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Ali Thomson, 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 52), 4 Conor Keys, 5 Luis Ball, 6 Eru Smith-Wano, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Jessie Williams, 18 Will Dennis, 19 Alex Dolly, 20 Jamie Cooke.

Blackheath: 15 Joe Tarrant, 14 Jake Lloyd, 13 Alex Pickersgill, 12 Markus Burcham (Capt.), 11 Craig Dowsett (Ackuaku 73), 10 Mark Cooke, 9 Stef Liebenberg (Daly 68), 1 Tom Williams (Young 35) (Dowsett 75), 2 Mike Perks (Fry 68), 3 Danny Herriott, 4 Tom Stradwick, 5 Josh Peters, 6 Andrew Daish, 7 Freddie Owen, 8 Anders Nilsson.

Replacements: 16 Harry Fry, 17 Phil Ackuaku, 18 Billy Young, 19 Jack Daly, 20 Elliott Clements-Hill.

Bishop's Stortford 20 Titans 22

Rotherham Titans made it 3 wins on the trot as they were made to work hard for their 22-20 victory over Bishop’s Stortford at Silver Leys.

Each side scored three tries, with Eru Smith-Wano, Jamie Ure and Seb Nagle-Taylor dotting down for the South Yorkshire side. Scrum half Alex Dolly added 2 conversions and centre Ellis Abrahams knocked over a penalty.

Based on this performance it’s surprising Bishop’s Stortford are not higher-placed in the league and were well worth their losing bonus point, as were Rotherham their win.

Indeed the home side got off to a flyer after just 9 minutes when flanker Dan Elsom finished off a sweeping cross-field move after Bishops created an overlap out wide. Fly half George Cullen impressively added the extras from close to the touchline to give his side a 7-0 lead.

Titans responded with good energy and soon had a try themselves, as on 14 minutes Eru Smith-Wano dotted down from a catch and drive 10 metres from goal. Alex Dolly narrowly missed on the right side with his conversion attempt.

In an entertaining contest back came Bishops immediately from the restart. The ball was worked to full back Nick Hankin who showed terrific pace to dance his way through the Titans defence to score a scintillating try. Surprisingly Cullen missed his conversion as the strong wind pushed his effort onto the left upright leaving the score at 12-5.

Rotherham bounced back again and on the half hour mark levelled the game when Alex Dolly converted another Titans catch and drive, this time finished off by second rower Jamie Ure.

Almost against the run of play Bishops nosed themselves ahead again just 4 minutes later when this time Cullen made no mistake from the tee, after Rotherham were penalised for not rolling away at the breakdown just outside the 22 and in front of the posts.

Rotherham had been the better side throughout and they finally got the scoreboard to recognise this, when two minutes before the break they took the lead for the first time in the match.

Following a period of forward dominance Alex Dolly found number 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor who came into the line at pace to collect from around 30 metres out to barge his way through to score under the posts. Dolly tagged over the extras to make it 19-15 to Rotherham at half time.

The second period saw both sides put in massive shifts, with each team demonstrating great ambition to play rugby and with each team showing great determination in defence. It was this latter quality which impressed meaning the half would be a low-scoring affair.

On 62 minutes Titans extended their advantage 22-15, when centre Ellis Abrahams knocked over a penalty from inside the 22 after Bishops had been penalised for being offside close to their own line when under massive pressure from the Titans pack.

In the main Rotherham continued to boss the game, but they couldn’t put away the home side as they showed tremendous resilience to stay in the contest.

As the game went into injury time Bishops broke away to score in the corner through replacement back Joss Linney, to make it 22-20 with the conversion attempt to follow.

Unfortunately for the home side Cullen’s effort missed its target and Rotherham held out for a deserved and very important victory.

Commenting post-match Rotherham’s Joe Barker explained, “The boys put in a massive shift against a very good team; Bishop’s showed that if you give them the ball they are going to play from anywhere on this pitch. It’s a very wide pitch and they know how to play on it and it suits the way that they play with the personnel they have.

“They’ve got a great team spirit and they have an outstanding attacking approach and they work very well together in defence.

“However, I have to give massive praise to our lads for grafting it out today. There were times in the second half where we just had to stick in there, which we did and we managed the game really well under pressure. The boys showed terrific character and grit to get through and that’s a good sign for us as a squad moving forwards.

“I was proud of the lads because these are the games you have to win if you have ambitions of being a top-end team. We weren’t at our best but I thought the lads showed great heart to get over the line.

“Now we’ve got to go to the next level because we’ve got a big game next week back at our place against Blackheath and we’re excited about that one. Hopefully they’ll be a great atmosphere at Clifton Lane because a win will be important and we know it’s going to be a challenge.”

Referee: Robert Bourke

Attendance: 402

Yellow Card: Irvine (Titans)

Titans: Smith-Wano (T), Ure (T), Nagle-Taylor (T), Dolly (2C), Abrahams (P)

Bishop’s Stortford: Elsom (T), Hankin (T), Linney (T), Cullen (C, P)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Henry Roberts (Field 75), 10 Joe Barker, 9 Alex Dolly (Dever 57), 1 Dan Richardson, 2 Ali Thomson (Bergmanas 71), 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 57), 4 Conor Keys, 5 Jamie Ure (Ball 41), 6 Smith-Wano, 7 Zak Poole, 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Luis Ball, 19 Connor Field, 20 Connor Dever.

Bishops Stortford: 15 Nick Hankin, 14 Robert Duff, 13 Jimmy Rea, 12 Reuben Bird-Tulloch, 11 Chris Smith (Linney 52), 10 George Cullen, 9 Sam Coleman (Banks 56), 1 Seb Brownhill (Castiglione 45), 2 Sam Crean, 3 Tom McCrone (Brownhill 56), 4 Sokonaia Kalou, 5 Matt Tomlinson (Capt.), 6 James Apperley, 7 Dan Elsom (McCraith 67), 8 Charlie Kingham.

Replacements: 16 Bradley Etherington, 17 Louis Castiglione, 18 Mark McCraith, 19 Joss Linney, 20 Tom Banks.

Photo courtesy of Andy Todd Photography: https://andytodd.co/bsrfc/8-december-2018/

Titans 20 Cinderford 3

Rotherham Titans grafted for the full 80 minutes to secure a well-deserved 20-3 victory over a spirited Cinderford side in tough conditions at Clifton Lane.

The low-scoring encounter saw Titans’ centre Harry Dunne cross the whitewash for a brace of tries - one in each half - whilst scrum half Alex Dolly added a further 10 points from the tee. A first half Liam Hemming penalty was the visitor’s sole reward for their labours.

The victory sees Rotherham move up to fifth in the table just 6 points behind league leaders Blackheath who visit Clifton Lane in 2 weeks’ time for what is expected to be a humdinger of a game.

In the damp and dreary conditions Titans knew they would have to graft hard against one of the biggest, physical sides in the division and this they did to their credit. Rotherham’s mobile set of forwards regularly moved their opponents around the park, as the South Yorkshire side back their fitness against any team in the division.

On 16 minutes Titans took the lead following a number of phases across the park, which culminated in Harry Dunne collecting on the crash-ball to barge his way over from 5 metres. Alex Dolly tagged over the extras for a 7-0 lead.

Cinderford continued to work hard but found it difficult to penetrate Rotherham’s line as the hosts defended with good intent. However, the visitors did get on the board in the 25th minute when full back Liam Hemming knocked over a long-range penalty after the hosts had entered the maul from the side.

Titans’ work-rate was impressive and it enabled them to gain promising field positions which led to good try-scoring opportunities, but frustratingly for them poor execution at critical times cost them dearly and there were no further scores in the first half.

Rotherham’s good play continued into the second period as they controlled territory and possession and indeed stretched their advantage on 52 minutes when Dolly slotted a penalty in front of the post at the clubhouse end of the ground.

Just before the hour mark Titans effectively sealed the game when they scored a second converted try. Dolly initialised the move around 30 metres from goal by changing the direction of attack, before Seb Nagle-Taylor and Joe Barker got involved which allowed Harry Dunne to collect and dive over near the corner.

Dolly followed his conversion with a successful penalty on 66 minutes to round off the scoring and to give Rotherham a 7th win in their last 9 outings.

Commenting post-match Titans’ Joe Barker explained, “It was a tough game in tough conditions and the way that they play makes it hard for any side to play against them. But credit to the boys, they fronted up and they managed the game very well.

“We defended well against a big side; they were strong at the set piece and they usually score tries in most games, so to keep them out for the full 80 minutes was very pleasing.

“I also thought we kept them out in open play really well and then we just found a way to break them in attack and once we’d done that we got behind them. To come away with the win is pleasing and it’s no more than the boys deserve.”

Referee: Llyr ApGeraint-Roberts

Attendance: 607

Yellow Card: Bergmanas & Cotterill (Titans)

Titans: Dunne (2T), Dolly 2P, 2C)

Cinderford: Hemming (1C)

Titans: 15 Callum Irvine, 14 Dan Leake, 13 Harry Dunne, 12 Ellis Abrahams, 11 Connor Field, 10 Joe Barker, 9 Alex Dolly (Dever 64), 1 Dan Richardson (Bergmanas 61), 2 Ali Thomson, 3 Rikki Stout (Dennis 50), 4 Dan Preston-Routledge, 5 Jamie Ure (Cotterill 48), 6 Luis Ball, 7 Smith-Wano (Poole 64), 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Capt.).

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 Will Dennis, 18 Tom Cotterill, 19 Zak Poole, 20 Connor Dever.

Cinderford: 15 Liam Hemming, 14 Sam Smith, 13 Terence Babarinsa, 12 Ed Bogue, 11 Reuben Norville, 10 Danny Pointon (Fenley 64), 9 Alex Frame, 1 Joe Smart (Capt.) (Porter 38), 2 Nathan Taylor, 3 James Elliot (Brockett 57), 4 George Evans (Balding 70), 5 Dale Lemon, 6 Jack Shields, 7 Joe Mullis (Keenan 50), 8 Harry Hone.

Replacements: 16 George Porter, 17 Tim Brockett, 18 Will Keenan, 19 Adam Balding, 20 Ewan Fenley.